The Root of the American Problem

[myyellowtshirt]

I have come to a realization in the past few days that one of Americas biggest problems is how lazy it is with language. Now you may read this and feel totally blown away by how obvious that statement is but I mean it in much more than just that Americans are therefore lazy. To break this down we will focus on one word: Love

Comments

[viking_funeral]

It could be argued that the reason for one word for love is that there is only one love. I personally find no difference in love. If I love someone, no matter as a lover, a family member, or a friend, I still love them. Why do we need multiple words for the same emotion? Love is love. Also, how is our language lazy? We have the largest number of words than any other language currently spoken. English is also used in most matters of legalese because of its diversity and its very specific meaning for each individual word.

[myyellowtshirt]

I didn't say that our language was lazy, I said our USE of the language was lazy. You have the ability to be the most specific with the english language but as a culture we refuse to do that.

[viking_funeral]

Regardless, why do we need more than one word for "love"? Many languages utilize one word for many meanings, depending on the context. I know you mentioned the use of qualifiers, but a people who speak a language which uses multiple words for varying degrees of a word is no less lazy than a people who speak a language that utilizes adjectives. Take Hawaiian for example. The word "aloha" envelops three different basic meanings, one of which is "love". And depending on its context, the type of love is understood. A lot of language, not just English and a lot of cultures, not just the English-speaking world, have a sentence structure where the meaning of certain words is simply understood. Requiring specific definition every step of the way would be an indicator that we as a people didn't have the intelligence to understand one another without it. And in the case of "love", using several different words for the same basic emotion seems pointless to me.

[myyellowtshirt]

I simply used love as an example I'm not really harping on that one word as being all important. The reason I think having multiple words is so................effective is because it requires specificity. It doesn't allow you to be vague or as inconsistant with your intentions or meanings in conversation. Again your focusing on the laguage itself in this argument. I have no problem with the fact that we have generalized words, what I have a problem with is that people in our culture will settle for using words that don't accurately convey what we are attempting to say because it will save us a few breaths on an adverb or adjective. We are a culture, and more so a generation, who complains about being misunderstood yet we refuse to allow ourselves to BE accurately understood in verbal or written communication.

[hotness007]

i lurve you.